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Topic: burners for 55 gallon pots (Read 8763 times)

Hi All,I have decided to upgrade to a 1 bbl system using 2-55 gallon boilermakers for mashing and boiling and a 30 gallon for my HLT. I have some guys welding up a modified Brutus 10 to accommodate the larger pots, but I am not sure which burners to use for such a large system. I am torn between a cast iron hurricane burner and jet burners. I have a smaller cast iron burner that I use now so I have experience with that, but have no experience with the jet burners.Any suggestions? Maybe a 3rd, 4th, or 5th option I haven't thought of?Thanks.J

I have a 30gal kettle I boil in that rests on 2 x 70000 btu cajun cooker burners... I use both burnersto reach strike water temp then pump to my mash tun (plastic)

After I dough in I heat sparge water and pump to my HLT (plastic)

When I drain to the brew kettle I only need one burner to get a rolling boil while slowly sparging sincethe wort is already around 150F... I could probably switch out that burner for one half that power and if I was to do thatI would probably go with a 50000 btu ring type burner with a needle valve flow control - back the gas right down.

I have such a ring burner but it is used exclusively for outdoor cooking - pasta sauce, chilli, and soup done inside a converted Sanke... the flame and heat control is so much better on those ring burners it is not funny, but my wife would kill me if I messed with her set-up, down side is they are more $$ and they are big/bulky to set up side by side.

I would stay away from jet burners (straight pipe type) they are noisy and don't offer much control - got rid of one already.

I have a cajun hurricane big cast iron burner that seems too weak to get 80 gallons boiling and have had to use a jet burner to get it going. Then had a hard time keeping a rolling boil. Might be the tank icing up that causes that. I want to plumb it to my house 500 gallon propane tank. Might have to go to high pressure regulator for that.

This is what I use - man, it really puts out a lot of heat. It brings a 55 gal barrel to a boil in about the same time I can bring my 14 gallon kettle to a boil with a much smaller burner. Stock up on propane though - you will need it.